Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown wasn't happy with his team's level of effort in clutch time during Thursday's 114-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
"I'm amazed at how we played going down the stretch and the fight not being there," Brown said postgame, according to The Kings Beat's James Ham. "There were numerous times where we stopped, trying to get a call and didn't just play through it, bring the physicality to them. ... When the game got tight, we let our foot off the gas, and we looked to the officials to help us win the game instead of just going to get it."
He continued, "We gotta have some form of mental toughness. We're getting hit with screens, and we literally stop and complain to the referees. That's not winning basketball. We know a team's gonna fight, we know the game's gonna get physical. We can't look to the refs asking to bail us out on the offensive end of the floor or the defensive end of the floor."
Pistons guard Jaden Ivey hit a game-tying three, drew a foul from De'Aaron Fox on a closeout, and made a free throw to turn a three-point Detroit deficit into a one-point lead with 3.1 seconds remaining. The Kings led by as many as 19 points and entered the fourth quarter up 14 before the collapse.
Brown said he drew up the way he wanted his team to defend prior to the Pistons' final possession. He told his team to foul to avoid a three, but the Kings instead allowed the Pistons to dribble for eight seconds.
"Jaden shouldn't have had an opportunity to even shoot a three," Brown said. "I need to go back and watch the film to see exactly where Fox was, but there was no reason to be a hard closeout. ... And why there was a closeout by Fox? I'm not sure."
Fox was asked postgame about the final play but chose not to address it.
"It doesn't really matter, it's not going to make anybody feel any better," Fox said, according to Ham.
The Kings have now lost five straight contests, all at home, and four of those defeats were by a margin of four points or less.
"Somehow, someway, we gotta pay attention to details for a little longer, especially down the stretch of the game, and we gotta keep our pace up," Brown said. "A tough loss that at worst should've gone to overtime because there shouldn't have been a closeout to any 3-point shooter."
Sacramento now sits 12th in the Western Conference at 13-18. The Kings will look to end their losing skid Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
